My Philosophy
I tend to be conservative in my political alignment. I was at one time pretty liberal in my politics. Then I got a job working for the government. My job was to upgrade some old outdated programs that simply would not work in a modern operating system. I did well and I liked many of the people I worked with but the red-tape and bureaucracy would grind work to a halt. Most people were more concerned about protecting their little fiefdom of workers and a budget then getting anything done. After watching the waste and lack of results I decided that I did not want the government to do anything for me.
While this transformation was going on I would engage in many a conversation over a few beers. It was during one of these drinking sessions that I realized that most people have no idea how economics work. I too held many misconceptions on how economics worked. In general things that sound great on paper or in an educational paper simply break down in the real world.
Most misconceptions with economics have to do with understanding what happens a few steps after an action. Usually these things have to do with not counting on people in the system adjusting to the new variables. Essentially I believe people are not dumb and will try to get the most they can get out of something with the least amount of effort. In other words I believe people are lazy, cheats, and hedonists. What keep everything in line are consequences.
People can be organized into two groups those that respond to stimulus and those that do not respond to stimulus. In general 90% of the population responds to stimulus, while the other 10% simply do what they want no matter what. And what I mean by stimulus is consequences both good and bad. Consequences are what keep things moving in the right direction. Drive too fast and crash into a tree. If you survive you learned your lesson. If you don’t drive catiously, your face planted into the tree trunk is a reminder to everyone else who had to sit in traffic for two hours to clean your dumb ass up.
The second key to my philosophy is everything in moderation. Just use common sense. Unfortunately common sense is not all that common. Too often people take things too far. Everyday you read about some hollywood star taking things too far. A little drinking is fine, too much and we all know what happens.
I will be adding more as the time permits. My philosphy tends to evolve.
